Investment Banking & Consultancy Can you start a business? How do you know if you don't try?

Monday saw 36 Krypton posted article "Why do not smart people to start a business," plan to write their own feelings. I did not think that in just two days, there are two of distinct views of the article successively appeared, "from consulting companies to leave business, I have not regretted a second" and "not everyone is suitable for entrepreneurship." So, the topic of "consulting/investment bankers don't want to start a business" is hot this week.

I do not want to continue this argument, because consulting/investment banking is a road, entrepreneurship is a road, different people take different roads, the same person different time to go different ways. But once labeled "label", both sides will easily lead to controversy, why we say "low", "no money", we ' have ideal ' and ' have the goal '; There, who said that we "only empty talk" "Do not", we are "smart" "Vision wide." So more and more labels, to their own stickers, and then to others.

I have been consulting for two years (Bain), two years of PE investment (Bain Capital), and then at Harvard to read an MBA, entrepreneurship once failed, and now joined a start-up company. So I was fortunate enough to be tagged with countless labels. In addition to consulting/entrepreneurship debate, there are a lot of people who keep asking me "do not invest in the entrepreneurial business", "to read the MBA can become", "Harvard's entrepreneurial rely on unreliable" and so on.

After joining the start-up, he looked back and took a deep look at what Mr. Jobs said at Stanford University's graduation ceremony in 2005 (his calligraphy class, which he dropped out of school, learned the fonts on Macintosh computers 10 years later):

Ten years later, it's time to look back. It is impossible to link these pieces together when you are looking forward, and you can only connect the dots in retrospect. So you have to believe that these pieces will be connected one day in the future. You have to believe in something: your courage, your purpose, your life, your karma. These processes never disappoint me, just make my life more special.

Well, some of the skills I've learned in the consulting/investment field are directly available to startups, and some of the qualities that I've honed in consulting/investing have been helping me move forward today.

Ability to analyze problems consulting/Investing a lot of work focused on (but not limited to) industry trend analysis, competitive situation analysis, consumer analysis, product positioning analysis, organizational structure analysis, operational performance analysis (which can be subdivided from the human to the market to sales to production and other major departments), financial analysis, potential risk analysis, etc., On this basis, summed up a large number of corporate strategy, investment, small to sales team incentive mechanism, production Department of technical indicators to track a series of programs. To do these things, theoretically there are endless frame of thinking, from the actual operation involved in a large number of data analysis, interviews, research, to enrich the theoretical framework. Two or three years, more than 10 projects have been done, my logical analysis ability and the use of the frame of mind practice makes perfect. These skills have helped me to think about everything from product to operation to team management in my entrepreneurial process.

Quick Learning Ability Consulting/investment to contact a large number of different industries, today is selling watches, tomorrow may be selling boats. The same industry may also be related to different departments. Usually a project is not a long cycle, so in a week or two you have to know the industry 80%. Consulting clients do not have the patience to wait for you to learn-every day is to spend real money, so we must learn how to learn quickly. I just came out to ask, the oncoming is four GOOGLE/IBM scientists, all speak human language I this human understand things-speech recognition, natural language processing, deep neural network, Blahblah. What's more, I have to go to the engineer team. Luckily, my ability to learn can get me into the role quickly, or I'll be kicked out of the door now.

The ability to socialize, to communicate, to demonstrate, to persuade. To be a consultant/investment, you should learn to deal with the senior executives of big companies. In particular, when consulting, or "consultant" role. "Counselor" is to teach others how to do it. You think, those years over 40 executives, how can be convinced to listen to a just enter the community "little fart child" advice. So learn how to handle the sense of propriety, how to do modest and courteous at the same time without losing the position is my very important self cultivation. It is an important skill to do any profession, even to be a person. Manners and gestures often affect the cooperation can be discussed, investment can be obtained, the product can be sold out.

I am a diligent habit I started to do counseling/investment from college, and I have been working for more than 80 hours per week, and the intensity of this work is generally not comparable to any other work. From such a high intensity of work, I have developed a habit of hard work, and relatively strong energy. The entrepreneur is treading on thin ice every day. Sometimes we have to fight for weeks in order to be able to make a thing in front of a competitor. I believe that diligence is an important part of entrepreneur's competitiveness.

But these skills and habits do not directly compensate for the huge cultural and organizational differences between startups and investment banking/consultancy firms. For those who are not adaptable enough, it is simply "The Tao is different from the other." So after joining a startup, you need to constantly adjust your mindset and use your skills to adapt to the new "Tao". In the period of joining the start-up company, I feel that I am rapidly forming the following qualities:

On the uncertainty of the grasp of consulting/pe investment, most of the contacts are more mature industries and companies, so there are a lot of certain things can be analyzed. And there are many sophisticated analytical methods and frameworks that can be applied. But entrepreneurship is not the same, where you go, you can not rely on how to do. or for you to analyze the information too little, think about it can not think of a why. So in the face of this "uncertain" sex, can not wait, there is no time to think clearly before doing, have to do! Then you can only stones. Roll up your sleeves and step on your legs. While running and looking, wrong immediately adjust direction. and psychologically you have to learn to deal with the pressures of this "uncertainty" and how to avoid them as much as possible to influence your emotions, team morale, and interfere with your judgment.

In the face of "failure" coping capacity "uncertain" more, "failure" is also common. In consultation/investment, it is difficult for you to have a deep intuitive feeling of failure. The project is good and bad, the investment of good and bad is not immediately immediately feel. Even if you do, no one will blame the associate. But in start-up companies, a small "failure" to waste hundreds tens (originally the money is not easy), a big "failure" the entire company has played, these may be directly related to you. The bright sword hangs overhead every day. But you can not fear, stop, so calm acceptance of failure, and learn to reflect, learn to drop the burden after failure, light, and not in the same place fell two times, is very important quality.

With the ability to bring a team to the consulting and investment bank in the first few years, you can hardly have the opportunity to lead a team of more than 10 people. These institutions are flat and elitist. But at startups, you'll soon have teams of more than 10 people, and the overall quality of these people is far from reaching the level of consulting and investment banks. How to deal with all kinds of small emotions, interests, how to let them cohesion in a piece, play a strong fighting power, is very test people.
It must be noted that these points will certainly be experienced if they are at the top of the consulting/investment bank. Plainly, these are the most important qualities of motivate. No matter which line you are in, the same way.

In addition, the shaping of a person depends not only on what he does, but also on the experiences and personalities that are important factors. For example, although I did not face the "failure" in consulting and investment, but my experience in life has let me learn a lot. The same university can cultivate all kinds of things, also do counseling and investment bank, nature is thousand face million. Ultimately, it depends on how each of us chooses to walk our own path. And the road is right and wrong and good or bad.

So it's not a theoretical problem that you fit into a start-up or even start your own business. What you need is your own down-to-earth search for answers. When you take the first step, you may find that reality is easier or more difficult than you might think. If it's easier than you think, then go down this road, if it's harder than you think, remember Jobs ' words, and after ten years you look back and you can string together the efforts of today and the results of ten years later. Everything, the most important thing is your heart.

Therefore, for the start-up companies, if you want to recruit consulting and investment bank, of course, need to investigate whether he has to do consulting/investment banks should have the basic qualities. "People like Tsai can't be nurtured inside the company," but it doesn't mean that you're looking for the same qualifications as "Cai Shun." More importantly, it is important to see whether he or she is thinking clearly about the business. "Think clearly" is not because you draw a cake. But he has seen it, thought about it, himself dozen chicken blood, willing to give up the high salary, from scratch.